The Vote on Raising the National Debt Limit

On Tuesday, May 31, liberals in the US House of Representatives claimed that Dooms Day was at hand because the national debt ceiling was not raised. Liberals accused conservatives of political demagoguery while the President, in his typical manner of not providing leadership, avoided taking sides.

Liberals seem to enjoy fear mongering and scare tactics instead of discussing and accept the cold hard facts. The fact is that the U.S. is $14.4 trillion debt and each American today is born with a federal debt of several thousand dollars. Liberals don’t seem to accept the fact that the government’s money is actually tax payers’ money, and if the government wants more money, it’s the tax payer who must surrender it. Here is a good math question for liberals: how many tax payers does it take, and how long does it take them to pay off $14.4 trillion?

In the real world, when a person or a family owes more money than they make, they stop spending. They stop borrowing. They make sacrifices. The liberals don’t understand that approach. They feel they can print more money and raise taxes. Besides, they need that government to buy votes with “public projects”. They also like to scare the elderly, the young, the poor, Hispanics, and other minorities. One progressive website claims that “allowing the U.S. to default on its debt would have widespread consequences for the U.S. and world economies, including potentially pushing the U.S. back into a recession or, in the words of Princeton Professor Alan Blinder, reigniting a recession” (Thinkprogressive.org). Liberals use the word potential as if it were fact. However, the truth is that continued spending and increasing the debt will certainly cause a financial crisis for America.

Liberals also claim taxing the rich is part of the answer for a better world. Again, they don’t accept the cold hard facts that all people move themselves and their wealth from any nation that threatens them. Whether it is high taxation or a bad business climate, history shows us that nations are the losers when wealth and the creators of wealth leave. This will happen to the US if we stay on our present course of high taxation and anti-business climate. The U.S. already has one of the highest corporate taxes in the world. Taxing the creators of wealth is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Out of the 32 Texas Representatives in the U.S. House, only four voted to raise the debt limit. They are by far the most liberal in Texas, and they come from heavily minority districts. These four are Sheila Jackson-Lee of Houston, Al Green of Houston, Eddie Johnson of Dallas, and Charlie Gonzalez of San Antonio. Interestingly, liberal Lloyd Doggett voted “present”. It is unfortunate that these Representatives see federal spending as way to buy votes and keep their power over their minority communities.

They don’t understand that there is a Dooms Day coming, but in the form of a financial crisis for all Americans if we don’t stop the spending and make cuts to an over-grown government.

George Rodriguez is President of the San Antonio Tea Party and a Fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation.